FINN HARPS manager Ollie Horgan has hit out a linesman he claims made a ‘mocking’ gesture towards him.
Horgan blasted the linesman following an incident during Friday night’s 1-0 defeat to Cork City.
Harps debutant Alexander Kogler saw a goal disallowed late in the first half and Horgan has hit out at the process that saw a four-and-a-half-minute delay before it was chalked off.
Kogler collided with Liam Bossin, the Cork City goalkeeper, who needed extensive treatment before being taken off.
Harps had celebrated the goal and were back in position for kick-off by the time the goal was ruled out by referee Neil Doyle following consultation with his assistant.
“The official on the line left a huge amount to be desired with his performance and a gesture in the second half towards me that shouldn’t be in sport,” Horgan said.
“It’s not a sore loser here. If we had won this game 2-1, I’d be saying the same.
“I have never seen this from a first year PE class to Premier Division in the League of Ireland. I have never seen a delay of four and a half minutes and I’ve never got a gesture off a linesman in 30 years.
“If I made a decision like that in a PE class as the referee and reverted or changed the decision, the kids would walk off the pitch. I say that without humour or without any slagging or joking.
“The linesman in his manner and his gesture, that wasn’t sport. Maybe I should have done what the PE class would have done and walked off.”
Horgan claims that the official in question refused to shake his hand after the game at Turners Cross.
Finn Harps manager Ollie Horgan at a press conference. Picture by Joe Boland, North West Newspix
Cork’s Alec Byrne scored the only goal of the game 11 minutes into the second half and Harps left empty handed with a sour taste in their mouths.
Horgan said: “What happened was wrong. If the goal was disallowed at the time, we’d have got over it. The referee pointed to the centre spot, we celebrated under the Shed End and came back into position.
“The linesman came back to the half-way line. He went back when the goalkeeper got injured but because someone gets injured doesn’t mean there was a foul.
“To be fair to the referee, he apologised that he got it wrong. I give him huge credit for admitting that.
“If the goal was disallowed at the time, we wouldn’t be talking about it. That isn’t our complaint, but it’s the four minutes and 45 seconds.
“There were four minutes and 45 seconds and the crowd and the bench managed to bully the linesman into turning over the decision.”
Horgan did not elaborate on the gesture other than to describe it as having been ‘mocking’.
The Harps boss added: “I have given this a huge amount of thought. I feel that a bigger club than us wouldn’t have let that go. I don’t think it would have happened another club without repercussions.
“We have always bowed and said we’d take our oil. Nothing will change the defeat, but it is the manner of the gesture that was made to me in the second half.
“It wouldn’t have happened a bigger or stronger club.”
Horgan is to discuss the matter with the Finn Harps Board and may yet make a formal complaint to the FAI.
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